Swap the Hard Work for Enjoyment

Whether you’re brand new to the world of adult coloring, or it’s love at first dabble and you want to know more about it, streamlining your process is a technique to help you be more efficient. It will make the activity more relaxing, and allow you to havefun with it.

The following five steps really are simple, time-tested strategies to boost your adult coloring game without having to sink too much time into it. Even this article will take you about seven minutes to read.

1. Brainstorm

Which colors will go where? Take out the colored pencils (or whichever implements you’re using), and literally set them down on the page to see how they’re going to look. I like to group my colors together.

This is a perfect time to think outside the box, and let your creativity shine. Of course you can also just color it the way it’s ‘supposed’ to look – no judgment! But make sure you pick colors that are similar, and contrast (are opposites).

2. Add A Base Coat

You want to start light, and then go dark. Find the lightest shade you will be using, and start to fill in the broadest areas of the picture in a faint coat of color. If you start dark, you will not be able to lighten up. You may go over this same area many times, but that’s okay. As the picture starts to fill up with color, you will be able to see which areas can stay light, and which ones need to be made darker.

Find A Rhythm, Picture by Jules Fox

3. Find A Rhythm

You’re welcome to color in any order that you enjoy doing it, but it can very satisfying to start working in patterns. In this example, I knew that I was going to go between two colors for the wings. Rather than pick up the pencil, color one stripe, then switch pencils – I saved myself thirty minutes by coloring one color, then skipping a stripe by leaving it blank, and moving on to color the next stripe.

If this resonates with your style, you can also try starting at one end of the picture and moving your way through it until it’s done. This can take away any indecision on your part of what needs to go where next, and can allow you to get into a meditative state of doing, rather than thinking. To me, that’s what coloring is all about.

PRO TIP: If you’re right handed, start coloring from left to right so that you don’t smear your color as you go. It also allows you to see where you have already colored as you go. If you’re a lefty reverse this advice.

Fill In The Blanks, Picture by Jules Fox

Fill In The Blanks, Picture by Jules Fox

4. Fill In The Blanks

Anywhere you left blank, or with a faint base coat can now get the darker colors you’ve been holding back on. This is a perfect time to start blending colors by filling in one section, then overlapping that section with another color.

As you get closer to the edges, add more pigment to your colors. You may need many extra strokes with lighter shades. With darker shades, keep adding light layers until you’re sure that it’s time to add the full force. With colored pencils, this means pressing gently until you’re ready to really push hard.

PRO TIP: If you’re not confident in your abilities to color inside the lines (and ifthat’s important to you), start your pencil tip at the line, and then work it in toward the drawing.

5. Shading

When it looks like you’re done with your coloring job, you can usually come back in with grey, or black, or even just a darker shade of the colors you are already using, and add some shading. In real life, wherever a light source lands, it leaves a bright spot. Everything to the side of that light gets gradually darker until you wrap around to the back of the object, and see the very dark shadows.

To imitate this in your coloring, figure out where you want your light to come from – you can even draw a little speck on your page to remind yourself where the light is coming from. On any edge close to the light you can add a light color, like yellow, if it’s appropriate. On any edge away from the light, you can add a darker color, gray, or black. As above, start light, then go dark with the shading.

This last step will give your drawing a nice, realistic pop. Once you get good at figuring out where light is coming from, it won’t take you more than a few minutes to add the right shadows in.

Did This Help You?

If any of this helped you, please share this article with your friends who might find it useful. Leave a comment below, and tell us what you liked best, or add any tips you think we may have left off the list! Thank you for reading, and check out Anna Grunduls Design for some really great adult coloring materials, as well as a host of other creative designer goods.

thank you for the coloring tips .. now i really want to color more however i cant since i lost all my coloring supplies in a basement flood and now stuck on bedrest and have nothing to help relax me .. thank you for the chance to win

2018-09-29 22:28:47

Jackie says:

Great advice! I love to colour but never like my finished look, i'll try some of these tips!

2018-09-28 17:08:20

Anna Grunduls says:

I'm crossing my fingers for you, Tanisha! There are many talented colorists, who make it look really complicated, but when you take it one step at a time, it really is very relaxing! :)

2018-09-28 15:54:08

Gerdundula says:

I will try the shading tip. I never know where the shading is going. Nice blog :D.

2018-09-28 12:25:39

Edwina says:

I love all things Anna designs!

2018-09-28 08:04:22

Becki says:

You are just inspired! Beautiful

2018-09-28 04:18:39

Je says:

This is awesome!They shading part, in particular, is super helpful!

2018-09-28 03:35:40

Vicki Rhodes says:

I've colored all my life but you are nver too old to learn new things, I've saved this so I can ref back to it! Thank you!

2018-09-28 03:30:41

Tanisha says:

I have found this blog very informative. I've always loved drawing/sketching but not so much the coloring. I would leave alot of my artwork uncolored because when it came to the shading part I didn't want to mess it up. I think I may give it a try now with the tips from this blog. Thanks Anna!

Additional information:
👉 Giveaway ends September 19th, at 12 AM Warsaw time
👉 You have several opportunities to enter, but not all are required
👉 Following Anna Grunduls Design on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram is not necessary, but may count as a bonus entry
👉 You are not required to share this post to win, but I would greatly appreciate if you spread the word!
👉 Winner will be chosen randomly through the Rafflecopter app and contacted via email, as well as announced on social media.

👉 Note: Some older phones fail to load the giveaway app correctly. If that’s the case for you, try again using a desktop computer.

Good luck everyone! Anna

About Anna Grunduls

I'm the Owner and Illustrator of Anna Grunduls Design. I design very intricate coloring pages and use them to create fun and practical stationery to color in. Click on the chat icon or comment below to get in touch!

Additional information:
👉 Giveaway ends August 21st, at 12 AM Warsaw time
👉 You have several opportunities to enter, but not all are required
👉 Following Anna Grunduls Design on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram is not necessary, but may count as a bonus entry
👉 You are not required to share this post to win, but I would greatly appreciate if you spread the word!
👉 Winner will be chosen randomly through the Rafflecopter app and contacted via email, as well as announced on social media.

👉 Note: Some older phones fail to load the giveaway app correctly. If that’s the case for you, try again using a desktop computer.

Good luck everyone! 🙂

Lots of love, Anna

About Anna Grunduls

I'm the Owner and Illustrator of Anna Grunduls Design. I design very intricate coloring pages and use them to create fun and practical stationery to color in. Click on the chat icon or comment below to get in touch!

Additional information:
👉 Giveaway ends April 6th, at 12 AM Warsaw time
👉 You have several opportunities to enter, but not all are required
👉 Following Anna Grunduls Design on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram is not necessary, but may count as a bonus entry
👉 You are not required to share this post to win, but I would greatly appreciate if you spread the word!
👉 Winner will be chosen randomly through the Rafflecopter app and contacted via email, as well as announced on social media.
👉 Custom illustrations are subject to copyright and cannot be copied or distributed by the winner or buyers.
👉 Anna Grunduls Design may include any custom made designs in future product lines and reserves all rights to the custom illustration.
👉 Current turn around time for custom illustrations is 3-6 weeks, but may change depending on the design requirements.

👉 Note: Some older phones fail to load the giveaway app correctly. If that’s the case for you, try again using a desktop computer.

Good luck everyone! 🙂

Lots of love, Anna

About Anna Grunduls

I'm the Owner and Illustrator of Anna Grunduls Design. I design very intricate coloring pages and use them to create fun and practical stationery to color in. Click on the chat icon or comment below to get in touch!

When my friends first stumble across my online shop, they often ask if I illustrate those adult coloring books. I always reply: I illustrate coloring pages!

It may seem like it doesn’t make a difference, but if a coloring page had feelings, I know it would be relieved! The way I see it, coloring pages don’t like living in books. And I’m here today, to explain why:

Into the Wild, Kaisercraft (November 2015)

Into the Wild, Kaisercraft (November 2015)

The aggravating seam of the book

Before I started my own business, I illustrated an intricate coloring book for Australian publisher, Kaisercraft. I was so excited, when my copy of the book arrived! The quality of the paper was outstanding. But it wasn’t long until I tried coloring in one of the pictures and got instantly annoyed.

Because of the glue binding, parts of the design were inaccessible for the colored pencils. In order to color in the whole design, I had to break the seam. This in turn resulted in pages falling out. Yet, even after breaking the seam, the book still kept closing itself WHILE I was coloring, a total disaster. I ended up tearing out the pages I wanted to color in. And don’t even get me started on hardcover books! Keep in mind, you’re going to spend several hours coloring each picture from the book. Shouldn’t it be as comfortable and relaxing as possible? Loose coloring pages would do a much better job.

Bleeding

Colored pencils are great, but Promarkers will always be my favorites. Alcohol based markers blend wonderfully, so I just can’t help, but use them for shading. Unfortunately, no matter how thick the paper is – they pretty much always bleed through the page. Most coloring books have double sided pages, which means one of them will likely get ruined, unless you only use colored pencils.

Not a solution for left-handed colorists

Soon after the adult coloring community started talking about their inconveniences, publishers and indie artists started working on improving the coloring experience. As a result, they started offering artist editions of the coloring books, with one-sided pages, printed on a thick card stock. While that’s an awesome offering, it’s not a solution for left-handed colorists – most of those coloring books feature the designs on the right page. That makes it even less comfortable for left-handed colorists.

All colored! Now what?

I can’t stress this enough: Art wants to be displayed! Once you finish a loose coloring page, you can frame it and hang under 5 minutes or turn it into other paper crafts. You might make a greeting card, use it for decoupage or decorate your planner with it. Colorists who finish their pages in books, tend to leave them there forever. Unless you open the book often and show the art to all your friends, I prompt you to cut out the page! Art needs to breathe! Coloring is a very time-consuming hobby and it’s only fair to your creations, if you let them make everyone’s eyes happy 🙂

The long forgotten coloring pages

Did you ever start a coloring page in a book and put it away while tidying up, but than you never picked it up again? That’s the most common case of forgotten coloring pages. Books are too easy to put away on a bookshelf and forget. I try to always keep my ongoing projects around my desk. I always use loose coloring pages, so I pin the page on a clipboard or tape it near my desk. This way it doesn’t take up any space, but I have a visual prompt to finish coloring.

Not such a great storage system

Books may seem to be the perfect storage for finished coloring pages, however they’re not as protective as one might think. Coloring pages are usually bigger than regular books, so they’re stored horizontally. Due to their weight, the lower books are actually “squeezed” under the pressure. For a short time period this should not be a problem, but after a long period of time, this could ruin your finished coloring. After a while, the colored pencil pigments start sticking to the opposite page and if both pages are colored – they can even start to mix! The best way to keep your colored pages is to display them in frames. If they’re not currently displayed, use clear folders and a binder to store them vertically and minimize paper friction.

I said goodbye to coloring books

I decided to retire coloring books from my online shop as of March 1st. The above pictured books have been sold out and there will be no restocks. However, if you prefer books over other coloring products, I linked two books below, that I illustrated for Kaisercraft Australia during my senior year at the University. You’re more than welcome to purchase these directly from the publisher’s Amazon store. These are printed on a high quality paper and have stunning gold embelishments on the front page 🙂

Happy coloring, Anna

About Anna Grunduls

I'm the Owner and Illustrator of Anna Grunduls Design. I design very intricate coloring pages and use them to create fun and practical stationery to color in. Click on the chat icon or comment below to get in touch!

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